3 Best Sights in Brussels, Belgium

Leuven's original Flemish-Renaissance library was set up in the old Cloth Hall on Naamsestraat in 1636. But after the university was disbanded during the French Revolutionary Wars, its collection was ushered away to Paris. Though destroyed in 1940 by British-German artillery fire, it was rebuilt post-war to the same design; today, visitors can climb the 300 steps to the top of the tower where a carillon of 63 bells, weighing 35 tons, rings out across the square.

Beyond the museum, the real appeal here is the audio-guided descent into the sewers themselves, where you'll find the River Senne. The city's main waterway had become increasingly polluted and problematic (frequently flooding) by the end of the 19th century and had to be covered over. Redevelopment projects are starting to reveal small stretches of the old river across the city, but this is a rare chance to glimpse, hear about, and yes, smell a little-seen part of Brussels's history, buried since 1871.

Built in 1381, this gate is a unique remnant of Brussels’s city walls, which tend to reappear in unusual places. (For example, if you continue down nearby rue Haute, you'll spy a huge chunk of wall next to the bowling alley at the crossroads with boulevard de l'Empereur.) In 1847, this gate became one of the first museums in Europe, though it lost its collections to the Cinquantenaire complex in the 1870s. It now has a permanent exhibition on medieval Brussels, and if you climb its 169 steps to the roof, a crenelated walkway affords sweeping views of the neighborhood.